Syrian government doubles medicines’ prices
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – On Thursday, the Ministry of Health of the Syrian government raised the price of 12,000 medicinal types by 50%, after threats from owners of pharmaceutical labs to stop working.
About a year ago and with the spread of coronavirus in Syria, the shortage of medicines crisis started and intensified during October and November in 2020 under the influence of the collapse of the exchange rate of the Syrian pound.
The rates of increase ranged between 40% and 50%, and these percentages are divided into factory owners and pharmacists, whose increase does not exceed 20%, a doctor and director of a pharmaceutical laboratory in Hama, told North Press.
In mid-April, some basic medicines, such as blood pressure, heart and diabetes medicines, were almost missing in the pharmacies of Damascus.
Two days ago, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alamiya Pharmaceutical Industries Company, Imad Ma’atouk, told state media that every week they lose 5% of the pharmaceutical products due to the inability to renew the raw materials required to purchase them.
“More than 20% of pharmaceutical types have been lost since the price of the dollar was raised to 2,550 SYP, as this threatens to lose 60% or 70% of pharmaceutical types,” Ma’atouk added.
On June 13, the Scientific Council for Pharmaceutical Industries demanded the Ministry of Health to intervene and bring about an adjustment in the prices of many pharmaceutical groups, due to the difficulties faced by laboratories in terms of high prices of raw materials and foreign exchange rates.
The current increase is not the first of its kind, as the Ministry of Health has raised prices several times after demands from labs’ owners to raise prices.
Ma’atouk indicated that most of the raw materials for medications are imported from China and India, except for some types that are imported from European countries.